Where do Prints Come in?

At this point it is reasonable to wonder at which point my media of print enters into things. As print is merely the media in which I hope to display these miniatures I have left worrying about that until I need to. I have kept up with the designing of new prints and currently have the blocks cut for another and am in the process of ordering more woodblock, for another two prints.

With these prints I hope to conclude my research into how 3-dimenional space can be displayed in print. I then intend to use the miniatures not just to display the degradation of urban space (which I'm currently thinking of doing through a sequence of consecutive photography, showing each miniature slowly degrading), I also plan to use the photographs I take in a further series of prints that show the miniature degraded inside an urban space that I have drawn myself, presented in the fashion of foreground/background like space was in my 'Waka' prints.

As this is my goal, I may only get mock-ups created in time for the assessment, leaving the actual print work to carry me smoothly into Unit X. We'll see how it goes though...

 Phone Box Construction

I started with the backplate for the phone box and the extrusions that would essentially become the four posts that supported it. Then onto the top box.

Next I tackled the light that is in the ceiling of the phone boxes. This proved tricky as I couldn't find any clear reference photos of the ceiling and due to lockdown couldn't really travel too much just to find a phone box to photograph, this wasn't to bad a situation though as I did start this unit trying to move away from relying on photos of the real world and focuse more on having full personal control of the spaces. I slightly winged it.

It wasn't easy but i managed to give the light a 1mm rib as I seem to remember alot of lights like this having one.

This was pretty complex stuff. The main body and most of the elements I made from 0.25, 0.5 or 1mm styrene sheet. The light I needed to be clear so use an empty packet of plastic that previously housed some sliced ham, (washed it first of course) it wasnt the most pliable or easy to work with.

In the end, after a lot of wrestling and several failed attempts I had something I was happy with.

The gummed, tacky effect of the casing was the easiest part to achieve. After removing the label from the packet of ham there was a glue residue that created the perfect effect. However, the adhesive qulity was impossible to be rid of entirely so that made it a lot harder to work with as it kept wanting to stick to both me and the scalpel.

The actually light bars were created by chopping up some cotton buds and placing them inside a box casing which were then fixed to the reverse side of the ceiling platform.

Next came the side panels which were constructed out of layers of styrene and an acetate sheet running through the middle of them. After this I began making the small elements that are found on the solid wall of the phone boxes e.g. elcctronics box at base, poster frames, shelf for phonebook. None of these things were glued down yet as I plan to paint them separately before putting it all together, all this is glued in this photo is the backboard and top box.

Another angle.

And again, another angle.

Reverse side, with space for the telephone sign. The core of the backplate was made from cardboard.

Front side. Again, the two front extrusions were not glued for this photo.

Side panel no. 1.

All following photos are of the receiver.

Phone and holder.

For an idea of scale.

Side angle, (phone not glued)

At this stage the only things left to make are the wire connecting the phone to its holder which I plan to make out of a guitar string and if i can find something suitable then the tread plate textured backboard to the main stanchion.

Other than that the construction of the phone box is completed.

I was going to jump on to painting it right away but I'm enjoying construction and don't see the point of jumping from construction, to painting, to construction again and again so, I'm just going to move on to constructing the next miniature... 

 Beginning Construction

 I wanted to show degraded urban space through socially conscious imagery that used the compositional format I had learned about through Japanese print, implementing the use of constructed models. 

For this to be achieved, I needed to select objects/structures to build that could be related to and understood by a wide viewership.

https://pmlgroup-ni.com/template/Phone%20Kiosk%20Spec.pdf

My first thought and one I was really quite happy with, was, to me, a perfect example of a bygone era and a structure that as such has been left to ruin, the phone box. 

I researched it and the second link is to a PDF that gave me the exact specifications for the dimensions of the structure, which I then proceeded to make in 1/12 scale. 

 Good Films

 

 Planning for Scale Model

After researching miniature art and artists, I began planning for one of my own. 

As I was intending to photograph what I made and use the images to create prints from, I thought it would be best to create a model that would supply several possible images and angles that each could be used to create a different print (e.g. Looking through a window or door, down  flight of stairs, up at a half wrecked room, each supplying different textures and materials to colour.)

These are the slightly more developed but still rough technical drawings of the wall section I drew up featured below. This is only one part of the wall however, the part I decided would be made largely out of wood that would fit in to the rest of it. I was aiming for a distraught section of wooden housing that could supply me with photographs from several points (as mentioned above). 

This was the image I started with, I had a photo saved on my Instagram that showed a very dilapidated block of houses surrounded by swish high rises. This juxtapose really interested me and I was sure I'd be able to use it at some point. I put together a quick sketch of the flats described (on left), from this I took a section of the building and edited it, adding elements and taking away as I saw fit to create a rough of the section of wall I planned to build.

Once I got into the more analytical breakdown of the sections I required to build this model I realised that the timescale was going to be pretty tight, (at the point these images were drawn I had 4 1/2 weeks to assesment) I felt I could have finished the build in the time I had but with little time to do anything with it. I decided then to alter my plans slightly as the entire point of this was not just to better understand methods of displaying space in 2-dimensions but also to print it in 2-dimensions, I didn't have the time and needed a new plan of attack...